Meet Three Artisans!

The Junk Bonanza is famous for bringing together the best junk in the Midwest, but the show is enhanced by the presence of several vendor artisans. These individuals create specific products, many using vintage raw materials. I’d like you to meet three of these fabulously creative vendors who will be bringing unique and useful products to the Bonanza.

Jennifer Finlay is the owner of Jennifleur, maker of wine bottle candles, candles housed in recycled wine bottles. These wildly popular candles were a hit at last year’s Bonanza. This year, Jennifer returns with some new interesting products – liquor and beer bottle candles and also her wine bottle candles, including candles with vintage wine labels from the 60’s and 70’s.

Jennifer grew up on a farm surrounded by creative women, her mother and her sisters. She learned at a young age to be creative and make beautiful things out of available resources. After spending many years in real estate, a career that left little time for being creative, she yearned for an outlet and created “Jennifleur”.

Do you know that the first time Jennifer sold her candles was at last year’s Junk Bonanza? Her products are now sold in over 60 retail accounts mainly in the Midwest!

Leslie Mullin is the owner of Pocket Books/Elegant Treasures, and creates beautiful purses from used and unwanted books. This will be Leslie’s third year at the Junk Bonanza.

Making purses from used and unwanted books happened by accident for Leslie. She was ripping pages out of a book to do an altered book. Unfortunately, as she was pulling the pages out, the entire inside of the book broke out of the binding. Leslie felt the outside of the book was too pretty to be wasted and in frustration threw the book down on her work table. The book cover happened to land next to some beading she was doing. She looked down and there it was, her first Pocket-Book. When Leslie made some for Mothers Day gifts five years ago, she got rave reviews. Her business was born!

This year Leslie has created a new style of purse from books she previously thought to be unusable because of their size. Because the covers were so great, she worked on creating usable products from them. She also has some new handle ideas she is debuting this year.

Laurie Crowell, owns Golden Fig, an artisan food company. She will be selling flavored vinegars, infused sugars, handmade caramels, delicious dip mixes and spice blends at the Junk Bonanza. This will be her second year as a vendor!

Laurie’s line of 80+ specialty food items are made and sold at her store in St. Paul, Minnesota. She ships her products all over the country to gourmet food stores. In addition to running a full-time business, Laurie is a mom of two sweet little boys. Aren’t we lucky to have Laurie at the Junk Bonanza!

I want to thank the following vendors who have each donated a $50 gift certificate for our Lucky Friday giveaway promotion!

Country Keepsakes
Old Crow Farm
Again & Again
Sophie’s Choice
Itsy Bits & Pieces

These vendors have been added to the list of Lucky Friday vendors on the sidebar of the blog along with a link to their website or blog.

Happy Junking!

Jill